On October 11, 2024, as part of an ongoing investigation, the Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) issued a mandatory recall for select pre-ground adult-use cannabis flowers, pre-rolls, and blunts produced by Nova Farms.
The products were recalled due to the presence of Microbials (aerobic bacteria and Enterobacteriaceae) and Yeast and Mold above the pass/fail threshold. The products were sold at 14 adult-use retail stores in Maine between September 17, 2024, and October 8, 2024.
Then, on October 24, 2024, OCP expanded the recall to include more pre-ground adult-use cannabis flower, pre-rolls, and blunts of the strain “Frosted Cookies” as well as pre-ground flower of the strain “Frozay”. The affected products were sold by nine additional adult-use retail stores between August 30, 2024, and October 14, 2024.
More Recall information here: https://www.maine.gov/dafs/ocp/recalls/nova-farms-10-2024
In result left 23 adult-use stores with tainted products, in what the Office of Cannabis Policy calls a “highly regulated, and overall “safer” market, compared to the Medical market because Maine Medical does not require state-mandated testing or does not require seed to sale tracking like Metrc mainly because it seems costly to small operators. But this recall again has questioned the legitimacy of testing especially for yeast and mold and more.
So, if you haven’t heard my personal opinion/belief on state-mandated testing, it’s a pretty clear stance. I believe most labs are completely bullshit. Hell, my top selling hat on my website store is “Cannabis Testing Labs are Bullshit” (View here: https://ghwc.store/products/Cannabis-Testing-Labs-Are-Bullshit-Hat-p681895911 )
But let’s be crystal clear about something first, I am well aware that it is possible for a product to pass a yeast and mold test and still fail later on the shelves, while I personally believe that would be some serious “bad” luck for that to happen in 23 different stores tho is kind of concerning regardless ESPECIALLY when the adult-use market in Maine is supposed to be the poster boy for “safety and clean” cannabis.
But if cannabis can fail for yeast and mold after testing clean, doesn’t that information itself prove that testing can be extremely faulty and not be trusted for PUBLIC POLICY? Again if you want to test your cannabis for research and development/ marketing research/ medical research, be my guest.
But to make it MANDATED by your state comes off a little COVID-y mask to me. Because there still isn’t enough public health data to say what “clean” cannabis does to our bodies, let alone “dirty” cannabis, to force PUBLIC POLICY.
Pesticides. Listen, I get it. No one wants to “consume pesticides” but in reality, we are, in some cases, holding cannabis companies to a higher standard than the actual food we all consume. While I mainly grow my own cannabis and don’t have to rely on any market or worry about pesticides.
Here’s my “issue”/ unpopular opinion: when cannabis is labeled “clean,” it still can be “unsafe” to consume combustion smoke, which is equally, if not more so, a liability to the state. Saying something is “clean” then isn’t… how does that make sense?
Let’s take Eagle 20 for example, the leading ingredient, when burned/combusted it creates hydrogen cyanide, which is pretty terrible I think we can all agree, and I know government and state officials love talking about Eagle 20 (at least in Maine). But even when “clean” cannabis combusts it still creates hydrogen cyanide.
What’s my solution to the testing madness? Let the patient/people decide. On the product just put “this product is not tested” and let the person decide if they want to take the “risk.” And this goes without saying, but we need to encourage people to grow more of their own. You think when they were growing cannabis 1,000 years ago they didn’t have mold or other unfavorable variables?
Even with this “compromise”, we don’t see any test results or “This is not tested” stickers on our own foods we eat, but if this will stop the madness, I am willing to come up with a logical, cost efficient solution.
While I don’t support people purposely dumping terrible products into the markets both legal and illicit, I do support “freeing the plant” and I believe that comes with “good” and “bad” grow practices. Proper education about cannabis still needs to happen at a mass level, which i feel we are still a few years back from still.
More work from Derek about his Maine Cannabis Coverage here at Beard Bros Pharms A Look Inside Maine’s Medical and Adult Use Cannabis Markets.
Derek Shirley was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of 19, he received a felony for 4 ounces of cannabis. After, he became a “cannabis nomad” living in Ohio, Arizona, and Maine, which he now calls home, and lives with his wife Sequoia and son Haze.
Being a cannabis nomad had its advantages, like relying on all markets for his medical cannabis needs which gives him a unique perspective of the cannabis markets. Currently, Derek operates People Not Parties Consulting, which helps local people and small businesses navigate their local and state governments without picking a political party specializing in protecting and preserving the small medical cannabis farmers of Maine. For fun, Derek enjoys screen printing and making cannabis memes under the pseudonym @gettinghighwithcats on IG.
